My April Notes 2015

My annual April notes, a representation of my own reflection. My personal (and professional) life has taken a more sunny turn!

My close friends told me I’m way more relaxed now, more happy. Sometime on the second half of 2014, my life has taken a more sunny turn. This should translate as great news for those reading my April Notes in 2014, who know I was deep in a funk and got depressed for several months. Keeping my blog going has been a great reward. It keeps me grounded; writing and sharing stories, connecting with friendly strangers, and being creative with my DIY projects.

It even helps me during my job search. During my last job interview (I ended up taking the offer), I brought my DIY makeup case and opportunistically used it as a tool to metaphorically demonstrate my aptitudes, management skills, and to help answer the classic question “what do you do in your spare time.”

2015 has been a great, sunny year as far as my personal life is concerned. I am blessed with an exciting new workplace and amazing colleagues. In addition, the blog shows no sign of slowing down. Starting late last year, new relationships allow me to share more fashionably inspired topics on Fafafoom, and the positive trajectory only continues this year. And last but not least, I no longer need to worry about long-term residency in the US :)

The work-life balance is nice, and I get to continue pursuing my serious hobbies. My success rate of cold emailing someone for blog features increases. Not only that, some people approaches me without solicitation to be featured. Having that on top of all the DIY projects I’m brewing, writing, editing photos, and maintaining the blog itself…I find it hard to just keep my “bare minimum” weekly post publishing. It’s super busy both in work and play.

My friends are right; I find myself being happy this year. I’m absorbing, learning, sharing, and having fun more. I’m grateful for each moments and opportunities, doing my best not to take it for granted. The weather was stormy for more than a year, and it has been seven month of blue skies. I’m truly humbled and blessed.

I also become more aware when I experience things. When watching movies I’ve seen in the past, I find myself appreciate it more now. Same with reading books and going to museums. Perhaps I get wiser as I get older? Either way, thanks be to God. I am also doing my best to minimize my greatest vice: procrastination. One example of that is updating the blog’s design in March (hope you like it!). It’s not done yet – I want to do a little bit more light CSS tweaks and dedicate a blog post for the changes I’ve made.

I also do more planning when I’m happy. One short-term goal I have is to switch hosting server for improved performance; this blog is getting bigger and the current server configuration just cannot handle it anymore. What a great problem to have! One mid-term goal I have is more travel plans. Chris and I went to Canada just visited Canada and I will share stories and photos soon. We also plan to visit Japan later this year, so I’m starting to plan ahead by researching, asking questions, and taking inventory of exciting new places to visit!

One long-term goal is to decide what’s next for Fafafoom, and whether to keep it strictly as my serious hobby or something more. I feel that I’ll get the answer sometime soon. The anticipation of the unknown is very humbling and exciting at the same time.